Satoru Iwata dies at 55

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata sadly passed away on Saturday 11th July 2015, at the age of 55. Iwata began his career at HAL Laboratory as a programmer, where he worked on games such as Balloon Fight, and oversaw titles such as Earthbound and Kirby. Nintendo offered him a role in 2000 as their head of corporate planning. In 2002 Iwata became the fourth president in Nintendo’s history, and the first who was not a member of the Yamauchi family. Iwata was a visionary that brought gaming to the masses with the revolutionary Wii and DS, and he wasn’t afraid to make bold decisions; with the company’s recent push into the mobile phone sector being one of the biggest in Nintendo’s history. While the Wii U hasn’t been as successful as its predecessor, with Iwata halving his salary to help offset the losses the company incurred, there are high hopes that Nintendo’s next console codenamed NX will recapture the imagination of gamers around the globe. Iwata may have been a corporate bigwig, but at his heart he was just like us. He once said: “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer.”

We’ve always found Nintendo’s games to be bursting with fun and creativity, unsurpassed in the gaming industry, and this can be largely attributed to the influence of Iwata and Miyamoto. While most of the gaming industry was churning out grey-tinged shooters and yearly sequels, Nintendo brought us the likes of Splatoon, Super Mario Galaxy and Pikmin, the perfect antithesis of corporate gaming. “Above all, video games are meant to be just one thing: fun,” Iwata once said. “Fun for everyone.” What a tragic and sad loss for our hobby. Our deepest condolences go out to Mr Iwata’s family and friends, and to Nintendo, a company mourning the loss of their president, and a true legend of the games industry.

Written by Kevin M

I've been addicted to gaming since my parents bought an Atari console way back in the 70's. I progressed to the iconic Speccy, Amiga, and all the Playstation platforms. Having seen games evolve from single pixel bat and ball, to HD constructed environments, gaming has changed much from my early years. Having defeated the rock hard R-Type on the Speccy, the biggest challenge I've faced so far is putting up with the hordes of American teens spouting abuse in the current generation of consoles, noob indeed!